The N. F. Smith et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,599 discloses apparatus for winding wires on respective bobbins to produce a plurality of coils on each bobbin, and for applying insulating tape about each of the coils. In operation, each wire is initially wrapped on an anchor pin and then wrapped on a first terminal of a bobbin. A length of the wire then is wound on the bobbin to form a coil, the wire is wrap-terminated on a second terminal of the bobbin and the coil is covered with insulating tape wound about the coil. The wire then is wrapped on a third terminal of the bobbin, another length of the wire is wound on the bobbin to form another coil, the wire is wrap-terminated on a fourth terminal of the bobbin, and the second coil is covered with insulating tape. This procedure is continued until the desired number of coils and layers of insulating tape have been formed on the bobbin. After the wire has been wrap-terminated on a last bobbin-terminal, this wire is again wrapped on the anchor pin.
In the Smith patent, after winding and taping of each bobbin has been completed, portions of the wire extending between the terminals on the bobbin are severed in a separate operation. During the course of the winding operation, the wires also are cut between the terminals and the anchor pins, whereupon the wrapped wire portions on the anchor pins are stripped therefrom. In the alternative, for thin wire gauges the wire portions between the bobbin terminals and the anchor pins may be severed by breaking the wire portions in tension as rotation of the bobbins is initiated at the beginning of a wire winding or coil taping operation. In either instance the severing of the wire portions between the bobbin terminals and the anchor pins leaves short wire segments extending from the bobbin terminals which also must be removed in a separate operation.
The J. S. Cartwright et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,452 discloses methods of and apparatus for winding wires on bobbins in which each wire initially is wrapped on an anchor pin, then wrapped upon a pin projecting from a winding arbor, and then guided through a first slot in a flange of a bobbin to a hub of the bobbin. As rotation of the bobbin is initiated to wind wire on the hub of the bobbin to form a coil, the wire breaks between the anchor pin and the arbor pin in tension. After a length of the wire has been wound on the hub of the bobbin to form the coil, the coil is covered with insulating tape. The wire then is guided into a second slot in the bobbin flange and again wrapped on the anchor pin, whereupon a cutter mechanism is operated to sever the wire between the anchor pin and the bobbin. This procedure then is repeated until the desired number of taped coil windings have been provided on the bobbin.
In each of the above-described apparatus, when it is necessary to change the gauge of the wire to be wound on a bobbin, it is necessary to stop the apparatus, replace the wire supplies in the apparatus with new wire supplies of the desired wire gauge, and rethread the new wires through the apparatus. Further, each of the apparatus is capable of winding only one wire at a time on a bobbin. Thus, neither of the apparatus is particularly adapted for the manufacture of articles of a type in which coils of different wire gauges are required on a bobbin, or in which a pair of wires is to be wound on the bobbin in parallel to form a coil, as is the case with certain transformers and inductors presently utilized in telephone transmission equipment. Further, neither apparatus is particularly adapted for the manufacture of wound product in small lots in which it is necessary to change the wire gauge utilized in the apparatus from one lot to another on a frequent basis.
Accordingly, a purpose of this invention is to provide new and improved methods of manufacturing articles such as wound transformers and/or inductors in which any one of a plurality of wires of different gauges readily can be wound upon a bobbin, or in which a first wire of one gauge and any of a plurality of other wires of the same or a different gauge can be wound upon the bobbin in parallel simultaneously.